The Balance
by navyseal33
Summary: Each chapter is a different short story about someone, such as students, teachers etc,  in Scare School or Deeds Town, sometimes my own characters. Please read and review, and no flames please! Rated T for language.
1. The New Girl

The Balance

Chapter 1

The New Girl

"Open your books to page one hundred and fifty five, class," Mrs Heady ordered. There was a clatter of banging desks, thumping books and fluttering pages. Mrs Heady sighed as she waited for her absolutely unorganized class to get organized. That, as you'd have guessed, took a very long time. Just as the history teacher opened her mouth to talk, the door swung open, and in came a small but tough looking vampire girl with straight dark brown hair with red highlights. She was wearing dark grey baggy jeans, and a dark green shirt and a black tie. Everyone stared at her.

"Um, will you please stop staring at me? I mean, it's not like just because I walked inside you discovered something new," she said. Thatch, the bully vampire, narrowed his violet eyes at her.

"I've never seen you around here before," he said suspiciously.

"Wow. That's so amazing; I think you could win a trophy. For the stupidest person in the whole Underworld," the girl said sarcastically. Thatch wasn't used to be spoken to like that. He opened his mouth and searched his mind for a witty comeback, but nothing crossed his mind. His gang stared at him expectantly.

"That- that's not true," he stuttered hastily. "You would win that prize, not me,"

"Give me one good reason how I would win that prize,"

"Because-"

"Because you are ashamed that you just got owned and you want to make me look like a loser except I'm _not _a loser, so you can't own me. Face it, Purple Eyes, you suck,"

Everyone marvelled at her coolness. Mrs Heady, on the other hand, was annoyed that she was interrupted, so she told the girl to introduce herself and then sit down wherever she wanted.

"I'm Esta, and, as you can see, I'm a vampire. And just because that purple-eyed loser is a vampire, does not mean I'm exactly like him, okay?" she said. Then she made her way to the back of the room and sat down at the last table. Thatch scowled. He didn't like being called a loser.

0

Casper, Mantha and Ra were walking together, as usual, to lunch.

"Did you see the look on Thatch's face when Esta called him a purple-eyed loser?" Mantha asked. Ra and Casper nodded their heads vigorously.

"'Course I did! No way would I miss _that!" _Ra cried, and he and Mantha doubled over laughing. Casper wasn't laughing, though. Sure, he had a smile on his face, but he thought it was rude to laugh about people.

"Come, on, let's invite her to sit with us," he said, changing the subject. But Esta was already sitting with some people. She was sitting with the people everyone thought she definitely wouldn't sit with: Thatch and his gang. Casper, Mantha and Ra were surprised to see her sitting there. But Esta said something to Thatch and cracked up. Thatch was grimacing, and his gang were sitting there as if they didn't know what to do. Casper and his friends sat near them, curious on what Esta had told them. Thatch was saying, "No way! I won't do it!"

"You have to, or you're out of the game. Come on, don't be so stubborn, you moron!" Esta said back.

"Fine, fine, I'll do it! But now it's my turn. Truth or dare?"

Suddenly, Casper understood. The vampire rivals were doing Truth or Dare to see who was better. He explained to Mantha and Ra, who were confused.

"Dare."

"Okay, I dare you to write the worst word you can think of on a piece of paper, write it really big on a big piece of paper, and hang it at the top of Scare School. There!"

"Easy! And you have to do you're dare during Science, okay? Okay, now, I need a bright red pen and a huge piece of paper," Esta said. Dummy Girl, who was in Thatch's gang, handed her a red pen. Mosshead said that there was some really big paper in the Science Room. So Esta went to the Science Room and Thatch and his gang followed. Luckily, Mr Burns wasn't in the Science Room. Esta laid the paper flat on the floor, and scrawled a not very nice word on it. Thatch and his gang laughed. Esta rolled the paper up and brought it outside. She turned looked up the school. The others stared at her, waiting for her to turn into a bat. For some reason, she didn't.

"Dang. I don't know how I'll climb this," she muttered.

"Can't you turn into a bat?" Thatch asked, confused.

"Nope, but I can turn into a dog, though. Or a wolf, whatever you want to call them,"

"Why?" Dummy Girl asked curiously.

"Oh, I don't know! What do you think I am? Some gene expert or something?"

"What has jeans got to do with anything?"

"No. Just- no."

Esta, tucking the poster under her arms and stuffing some tape in her jean pockets, started to climb the school. She reached the top in no less than ten minutes, and taped the poster to the point of the roof. Thatch and his crew began guffawing. Esta climbed back down quickly, and when she turned to speak to Thatch, her blood-red eyes sparkled.

"Now it's your turn, Thatch," she smirked. "You have to call Mr Burns an idiot,"

0

It was Esta who won. Thatch gave up when Esta dared him to walk through the Scary Woods.

"What a wimp!" she declared, and went off, cackling. So it was Esta who was 'better'. Then Casper, Mantha and Ra finally had the chance to go up and speak to her.

"Hi! I'm Casper," Casper introduced himself during lunch the next day.

"I'm Mantha," Mantha said.

"I'm Ra, and I'm extremely cool and- OW!" Ra cried when Mantha kicked his shin. Esta raised an eyebrow.

"Extremely cool and what? Pathetic?"

"Told you, Mantha! Now she'll think we're losers,"

"No-one can be more of a loser than Thatch!"

"But we saw you talking to him yesterday," Mantha pointed out.

"I was _daring _him stuff. And he dared me stuff, and I obviously won. We were doing Truth or Dare, except we never did Truth,"

"Why?"

"Because whenever you do _Truth, _they always ask, 'Who do you like?' And it freaking gets on my darn nerves,"

"How would you know if Thatch would ask that?"

"Because everyone is the same!"

"Would you?"

"No."

They stop talking for a moment. Then Casper said, "So. Um, can we sit here?"

Esta shrugged.

"I guess," she said uncertainly. Casper, Mantha and Ra sat at her table. Esta bit into a burger, which had raw meat and blood sauce in it. Ra was about to say something, when Thatch, who was sitting on the table next to them, made a snide remark.

"Ha! The new girl's sitting with the losers!"

Esta turned around, still munching on her burger. She said something, but since her mouth was full of meat and blood and bread, nobody heard what she was saying.

"What was that?" Thatch sneered. Esta waved a hand at him.

"Never mind. Anyway, what I _meant _was I might be sitting with a bunch of friendly people, but at least I wasn't sitting at a table with a bunch of blockheads like you,"

"What'd you say before?"

"Never mind _that. _If I said it now, you'd probably go in a big tantrum. Because-" A pencil hurled across the room, and hit Esta right square in the face. Thatch and his gang burst out laughing. Mantha and Ra were trying not to laugh, and the whole cafeteria was roaring with laughter, too. Esta jumped to her feet.

"Who threw that?" she demanded. Thatch pointed across the room. A furry purple monster was laughing along with his friends. Esta marched right up to him, and pulled him out of his seat. He was still laughing uncontrollably. Everyone else stopped, watching Esta and the furry monster.

"Excuse me, but shut the hell up or I'll have to slap that smile of your face," she snarled. The monster thing tried to stop laughing, but he was still grinning. So Esta slapped him round in the face. His grin had been 'slapped off'.

"Ow! What the heck?" he cried, rubbing his face. But Esta wasn't done yet. She kicked his shin, and swung her fist up so it hit the furry monster right on the nose. Well, wherever its nose was supposed to be. Esta hit his face again, and began banging his head against the wall when someone pulled her away from the furry monster. It was Franken-gym-teacher. Everyone was silent now. The furry monster whimpered and ran out of the cafeteria. Esta was scowling, her blood red eyes glowing with anger.

"Oh, what are all you idiots staring at, huh?" she snapped. Everyone looked away. Franken-gym-teacher pushed her forwards, and she stumbled back to her table. Thatch was staring at her, his eyes large and round. Esta glared at him.

"Stop staring, or you'll regret it, moron!" she snapped. Thatch looked back at his gang. The whole cafeteria was silent. This irritated Esta.

"Darn! It's so dang quiet! Who cares if I just beat up that-" she said a word she really shouldn't have said. That made the room even quieter. "Who the hell cares if I just swore? I do whatever the hell I want!"

Then she muttered something and sat down and began eating again.


	2. Mr Bradley's Discovery

The Balance

Chapter 2

Mr. Bradley's Discovery

Creature Catching was getting popular in the Fleshy World. And it just so happened to be Jimmy's dad's company that was getting popular. The troubles began when Jimmy's dad found the Scare School ship in Deeds Town. He had suspected it was something to do with creatures, so he hid inside it. Just then the Scare School students were coming back from their field trip. Mr. Bradley was hiding in a barrel, so no-one noticed him. Casper, Mantha and Ra sat at the back of the ship, which was extremely close to Mr. Bradley. But they still didn't notice. Esta was pretty close to Mr. Bradley, too, but she had her nose in a book so of course she didn't notice. Thatch was third closest. He was talking about scaring to his gang when he suddenly got a whiff of blood. Human blood. Of course, this blood belonged to Mr. Bradley. He had cut his finger when he pulled a thorn out of it. The tiny pinprick of blood dripped onto the barrel floor. That's when Thatch announced, "Wait a minute! I smell a fleshy!"

Everyone shut up and stared at Thatch. "Well, fleshy blood, but still a fleshy!"

"That's nice. I'm sure nobody's cares," Esta muttered, not bothering to glance up. She barely heard Thatch. For once, Thatch ignored her snide remark.

"It's here somewhere! Everybody, look!" he commanded. Everyone began looking everywhere, except for Esta. Casper and his friends were looking, only to save whoever had bad enough luck to get lost on the ship. But Mr. Bradley was not lost. He knew exactly where he was: on a ship with lots and lots of creatures.

0

"Thatch, there ain't no darn fleshy on this darn ship. Just face it, loser," Esta told him. She got out of her seat and made her way to the barrel. She picked the lid up, and peered inside. "See, there ain't no- wait, there _is. _What the hell?"

Everyone rushed to the barrel and looked inside. Mr. Bradley was crouching in the barrel. He jumped out, holding a weird vacuum-cleaner looking thing out at them.

"Ha! One dirty trick and you'll all be stuck in here! Forever!" he cried. Esta raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, sure. I'm so scared I forgot to scream and jump off the ship. Dude, what is your darn problem? Just get your butt off this darn ship, or I'll bite your head clean off your neck," she snapped.

"Oh, yeah? Will you? What if I pull out this" –he fished for something in his pocket- "garlic?"

"That's an onion, stupid," Esta snorted. Mr. Bradley's face fell. It's a wonder he got so popular in creature-catching.

"Then in you go into this!" he shouted, then pressed a button in the vacuum-cleaner thing. Nothing happened. "Huh?" he jumped on the button. Still nothing happened. He began hitting the button, but all effort was in vain.

"What a loser. Now, why are we just standing 'round and watching the loser fail, when we can just turn it into an appetizing dinner? Like a bloody milkshake, or blood soup, or artery pasta or something?" Esta suggested.

"No!" Casper blurted out before he could stop himself. Everyone stared at him. 'No! Don't do that!"

"What do you care? You ain't a fleshy," Esta said.

"Yeah, but its mean," Casper said. Esta made a face.

"Yeah, well, why do you think they called Scare School _Scare _School? Because all the students are taught to be darn nice and friendly? No, Casper, they called it _Scare _School because the students there are taught to be mean and scary and unkind. So why don't you go with the rules of _Scare _School and be _mean _for once?" she snapped.

"Well... why don't we just take him to Alder and Dash?" Casper asked desperately.

"No, _I _will take him. _I _was the one who found him!" Thatch said.

"Actually, I was the one who lifted the barrel lid. So technically _I _was the one who found him," Esta corrected, "But you can take him anyway, because you'll just go into some dumb tantrum if I don't let you,"

"I don't go in _tantrums," _Thatch protested.

"You do. Just face it, loser, you _do _go in tantrums. You just don't wanna admit it,"

"I do not go in tantrums!"

"Yeah, you do!"

"No, I don't!"

"Just admit it, you do!"

"No, I-"

"Just cut it out, guys!" Mantha interrupted. Both vampires looked at her.

"What's your problem?" Thatch snapped.

"It's obvious. _You're _her problem. You're everyone's problem. Especially _mine,_" Esta said. Thatch scowled but didn't say anything. He turned to Casper, when someone shouted, "He's getting away!"

Mr. Bradley had run over to the ledge and was climbing over. The creatures lunged to get him, but he had already jumped off. They watched him fall, and a bright red balloon thingy had suddenly popped out of where he was (a parachute, but the creatures didn't know that).

0

Mr. Bradley had landed in a forest. Fortunately, the forest was near his house. Unfortunately, it was the home of the Chimaera. The Chimaera is a monster with the body of a lion and a goat's head sprouting from its back. It also has a snake for a tail and breathes fire. Its name is Chimaera. And Mr. Bradley just happened to run into Chimaera. Chimaera's main head (the lion) was arguing with the goat's head and the snake.

"No! Crashing a party is what we didlast year! Come on, we need new ideas!" the lion snapped.

"Whatever, I still think Gucci is way better than Prada," the goat huffed.

"What? When did I ever bring up _designer clothes? _You don't even have a body!" the lion said.

"Oh! Look! It's a pancake! And his name's Bobbity!" the snake cried out suddenly. He wasn't very sane. The lion sighed, and explained to the snake that the tree was not a pancake and it was not called Bobbity. The lion was in a world of absolute horror and pain. The goat was obsessed with Gucci and other designer brans except for Prada even though it didn't even have a body, and the snake was just not very… bright.

"Oh, Chimaera, eh?" Mr. Bradley smirked. Chimaera finally noticed Mr. Bradley. The lion was the only one bothered by this. While the goat went on about how 'Gucci was better than Prada', the snake began ranting about pancakes and cupcakes and rock-cakes.

"Pancakes are very appetizing and delicious, but I have to say that cupcakes are the best. And while rock-cakes are very rocky, they taste like stone, so I don't like them much. Rock-cakes…" the snake never realised Mr. Bradley. Neither did the goat. The lion growled and bared its jagged fangs at Mr. Bradley. Mr. Bradley searched his rucksack for something. The lion roared, and bright flames of fire threatened Mr. Bradley. But Mr. Bradley was prepared. He pulled out a spear, and feebly tossed it at Chimaera. It missed Chimaera by miles. Chimaera started towards Mr. Bradley.

"Hello, fleshy," the lion snarled. Mr. Bradley was about to say something back, when the goat suddenly shouted, "I still can't believe that you like _Prada_! Prada is for old people- I mean, come _on!_"

She began weeping. The lion suddenly forgot all about Mr. Bradley and began shouting at the goat to shut the hell up.

"I don't give a DARN about you and your old-people Prada crap! So shut up, and be _smart _for once in your darn life! I mean, it's so SAD that you even raved and ranted about your Gucci-Prada-Burberry crud before _designer clothes _were even invented!"

So Mr. Bradley got away from Chimaera easy-peasy.


	3. Pencil Lead

The Balance

Chapter 3

Pencil Lead

Casper, Mantha, Ra and Esta were in a group together for Science. Mr Burns chose the groups, obviously. The four were making their poster about the fleshies' Nervous System (which, in the Underworld, is the system which causes the fleshy to be scared), when Esta saw Thatch's pencil case lying on his desk.

"Ha, ha! Thatch left his pencil case here," Esta smirked as she leaned back in her chair.

"Well, you're not doing any work! Go get me a blue felt tip pen!" Mantha snapped. Esta said to Casper, "Go get Mantha a blue felt tip pen,"

Casper went to get a blue felt tip pen.

"I didn't ask Casper, I asked you, Esta," Mantha grumbled.

"You should have made it clearer. You never said, _'Esta, go get me a blue felt tip pen!' _you said, _'Go get me a blue felt tip pen!'" _Esta protested. Her eyes flickered over to Thatch's pencil case once more. Then she got up and searched for a book about the Nervous System. Ra was on a computer, researching.

"It says here that the Nervous System is the when the brain sends messages to the body through nerves," he said. He scanned the screen once more, then scrolled down.

"That computer sucks. Everyone knows that the Nervous System is when the monkey in the brain feels nervous and causes the fleshy to give out scare juice," Esta snorted. What she _didn't _know was that the computer was right and she was wrong.

"Actually the computer's right," Casper said when he returned with the felt tip pen. Mantha took the pen and began writing down the title: Nervous System.

"No, it isn't. It's a dumb computer and I say we chuck it out of the window," Esta declared. Mantha was annoyed. She didn't know what she should write: the computer's answer or Esta's.

"What should I write?" she asked.

"Write _my _answer. Then we'll get a good grade. Come on, I've got a book. OK, here we are. Page forty-five. The Nervous System is controlled by the monkey in the fleshies' brain, like most of the fleshies' systems. The Nervous System causes the fleshy to feel nervous, and the fleshy's body starts to create a substance called Scare Juice. Scare Juice is a watery liquid that comes out of fleshy skin whenever the fleshy is feeling pressured. Scare Juice-"

"OK, that's enough, Esta," Mantha announced. "Now we'll get the- hey! Where's the computer?"

"Oh, I chucked it out of the window, like Esta said," Ra explained. Esta, Mantha and Casper stared at Ra. "What?"

"Ra, Ra, Ra. _Where the hell _did you get your previous education?" Esta asked.

0

Esta went to get another computer, while the others looked for other books. They now had three books, including Esta's one: _The Fleshy Systems _(Esta's), _Nervous System and Scare Juice _and _The Body of the Fleshy. _All of them had lots of bits about the Nervous System.

"Hello and I'm back with a computer. Hopefully it's a _good _computer and hopefully Ra won't chuck it out of the window," Esta proclaimed as she marched in through the door. She dumped the computer into Ra's hands, and sat down next to Mantha.

"Hey, you told me to!' Ra complained.

"Ever heard of a joke?" Esta said. She grabbed the _Nervous System and Scare Juice _book, and opened it at a random page. "Page one hundred and seventy-eight-"

"Why do you always say the page number?" Ra interrupted.

"No interruptions! So, where was I? Oh, yeah, page one hundred and seventy-eight. The Nervous System controls fear, anxiety, nervousness and other feelings of worry/fear. It is... oh, already done that. Let's see... done that, done this..." Esta's voice trailed off as she searched for something she hadn't already mentioned. "Oh! Here we are- the Nervous System also controls psychiatric disorders. Ra, please stop bumping the table. _You _probably have a psychiatric disorder. Anyway-"

"Oh, God! Now look what you made me write!" Mantha cried. Esta, Casper and Ra looked at the poster. It said: _Ra, please stop bumping the table. You probably have a psychiatric disorder. _And, to make matters worse, it was in permanent blue marker. Esta cracked up, and Ra looked embarrassed. Casper and Mantha were staring at it in dismay.

"Oh, my God! That's darn hilarious!" Esta whistled. Still laughing, she slammed shut the book she was reading out. "And you can't rub it out!"

"Um! Does anyone have some white out?" Mantha asked. She could tell Ra was humiliated.

"No, but Thatch does," Esta said. She got up and picked Thatch's pencil case off his desk. She opened the zip, and stuck her hand in, groping for the white-out. She finally pulled her hand out, but in her hand was a small container of pencil leads. She stared at it for a second. Then she opened it and took out a couple of pencil leads.

"Hey! Have you got the white-out?" Ra asked. He looked at her. "What are you _doing?"_

Esta ignored him and began breaking the leads. Parts of lead flew across the room. In the end she had broken about ten leads. Thatch's container was nearly empty. She placed the container back inside, and began groping for the white-out again.

"That idiot Thatch has to pay for using up all my pencil lead. He has pencil lead himself anyway. Why did he bother using _mine? _Probably some weird retard instinct he owns…" she explained. Then Mr Burns barged inside. Like Esta, he had the exasperating habit of barging inside without a warning. He froze and looked around his Science Room. There was lead thrown all over the floor. He looked from Casper, to Mantha to Ra to Esta and back again. His gaze rested on Esta. She shrugged.

"Pick all the lead up," he ordered stiffly. Esta crouched and began picking up the lead. Mr Burns watched her. When it looked like she had picked up all of the lead, he reached for Thatch's pencil case, pulled out the lead container, took off the lid and poured the rest onto the floor for Esta to pick up.

"What? But I didn't drop that!" she cried.

"Well, _I _have, and you're going to pick it up!" Mr Burns said as he walked over to the poster. Ra was about to pull it away, but it was too late. Mr Burns read out: _"Ra, please stop bumping the table. _You_ probably have a psychiatric disorder!"_


	4. Just Annoying

The Balance

Chapter 4

Just Annoying

Alder and Dash, the Heads, were in their office, arguing. Now, you may have noticed I put in _Heads _instead of _Head. _I did that on purpose- see, the Heads have two heads, each with a different personality, just like the Chimaera. Except the Heads have two heads only. Alder wasn't very bright. He was always letting secrets slip out, and couldn't ever comprehend with what anyone was saying. Well, he could, but everyone doubted he could make much sense of what he hears. Dash was the smartest of the pair, although he was very strict. He had a crop of orange hair and was wearing one of those graduation hat things. Alder was wearing a bucket hat thing and goggles. His head was flat and round, while Dash's was long and thin. They had purple skin and wore a weird scaly robe thing. No-one liked them much.

0

"But _I _want to read the book!" Alder complained. He reached out to the grab with the left hand to grab the book, but the right hand held it out of the left hand's reach. The left hand was controlled by Alder; the right hand was controlled by Dash. The book was the book a goblin had given them when they were wandering around the school. The goblin told them it was a book with different ways to punish disobedient students. Alder and Dash had planned to punish Casper with a little help of the book. Dash grabbed the microphone that was connected to the loud speaker and announced, "Casper, please come to my office in five minutes," He flipped the book open and searched a page.

"Ah ha!" he cried as his thin lips stretched into a wide smile.

It read: _Blackmail them. Force them to do something they don't want to do otherwise you'll punish them. _Except it never said was sort of punishing technique they should use.

"What? Ooh! Let me see!" Alder cried. He grabbed the book and read the punishment.

"Except it doesn't say what sort of technique we should use," Dash muttered, frowning. Just then the door opened and in walked a gargoyle with Casper.

"Casper," the gargoyle announced in its gruff voice, and then walked out of the room. Casper looked around the room nervously.

"You called for me, sirs?" he said. Dash nodded gravely, as if he knew what he was doing. But he didn't.

'Ah, Casper. Your friendliness is a great threat to us all. We know exactly what to do with you," he said. Alder looked surprised.

"We do?" he cried, shocked.

"Yes, we do, you idiot. Um, let's see. You must... uh... be mean to Mantha and Ra or else you have to clean the pirate ship,"

Cleaning the pirate ship was the thing all the students hated the most. But Casper didn't mind. He was friends with Cappy, the boat driver, anyway. Plus Casper definitely didn't want to be mean to his best friends. So he took the pirate ship. After Casper left the office, Dash frowned in disgust.

"Did you hear that? He just said, 'Can I clean the pirate ship?'" he snapped.

"Yeah, I heard him alright," Alder said. Dash sighed. So his plan had failed on Casper. Who else should he try out? Esta!

"We'll try Esta now," Dash muttered as he spoke into the microphone again. "Esta, please report to the headmasters' office in five minutes,"

They turned to a different page in the book. Dash spotted something perfect for rebellious Esta: _Make the student dust all library books and put them back in the shelves in alphabetical order. _He showed it to Alder. Both of them were so desperate to punish Esta, they hadn't realised they didn't have a library. Just then Esta barged into the room.

"Where's the gargoyle?" Dash asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I told him to stop following me and clear off," Esta explained. "So. What'd ya call me for?"

She began picking at her silvery fangs.

"Esta, since you were the one who scattered broken pencil leads all over the floor, we have no choice but make you dust the library books and put them back on the shelves in alphabetical order," Dash said.

"What library?" Esta asked, confused. Then Dash realised that there _was _no library. He stared hard at Esta for a long time.

"You know what? Just go," he finally said. Esta went out of the door. Dash took one glance at the book and tossed it out of the window.

"That book is just annoying!" he cried.


	5. The Balance

The Balance

Chapter 5

The Balance

Mantha sat in History, feeling bored. She and Ra and Casper were doing the project together, and planned to make a poster and a power-point about the Black Plague. So they asked Mrs Heady if they could. She said yes. But _after _they had written an essay about The Balance. So that's why Mantha was feeling bored. The Balance was the most boring thing ever, after cleaning the pirate ship with your tongue. Well, Mantha couldn't say, because she had never cleaned the pirate ship with her tongue, but I bet that if you asked Thatch he would agree with what I'm saying. Anyway, so Mantha was sitting there feeling bored. She had a sharpened pencil in her hand and was staring at a blank sheet of paper. She wrote her name on the top-right corner and the date next to it. She wrote _'The Balance' _as the title and was now thinking of what else to write. She looked around. Everyone was writing away. She could only hear the scratching of pencils. During tests, everyone was silent. Mantha sighed, breaking the spell. For some reason, everyone burst out laughing. Mrs Heady, who was marking worksheets, looked up.

"Class! Be quiet. Mantha, detention for disrupting class," she said. She gave Mantha a reproachful look and began marking worksheets again. Mantha grimaced and thought hard of what to write. Giving up, she leaned forward and tried to look over Wolfie's shoulder to see what he was writing. She wasn't aiming to copy him, just get a few ideas of what to write. But Wolfie's handwriting was messy and small, so Mantha's effort was in vain. Mantha, feeling glum, looked back at her paper. She stared at it for about another ten minutes, when Mrs Heady rang a bell. Everyone groaned, but not Mantha. She too panicked to groan. She hadn't written a thing! So while everyone was busy handing in papers and lining up by the door, Mantha quickly scrawled: _The Balance is really important to us creatures. If we're too nice or too mean to fleshies, they'll rise up against us. That's what The Balance basically is. _She got up to hand it in. She turned it over so no-one could see her work. Everyone was lined up by the door. Mantha was standing behind Esta. Well, Esta or Thatch. They both had the same cape- red and black, like all vampires. Vampires were so unoriginal. Mantha sighed, and followed everybody out of the door to their next lesson, which was unfortunately Science. Science, like History, was a subject in which the teacher was not particularly decent. She hoped she would not receive a second detention.

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During lunch, Mantha had detention for 'disrupting' class-time. So she went to the History room for her detention. Esta and Thatch were already there (before this story started, Esta and Thatch had massive confliction over who should sharpen the pencils and ended up in even more massive trouble with Mrs Heady). Mantha sat on Thatch's right. Mrs Heady glared at Mantha. She held up Mantha's essay.

"What's this, Mantha?" she asked. Her voice was dangerously soft but sharp. Mantha gulped. Thatch and Esta took one look at the sheet of paper, and then bit their lips with their sharp fangs to stop themselves from laughing. Mantha got up out of her seat and went to Mrs Heady's desk. The teacher and student stared at each other for a moment. It was silent except for the vampires' muffled laughter.

"What's this?" Mrs Heady repeated, with the sharpness of her voice faltering.

"My essay on The Balance," Mantha replied nervously. She began fiddling with a lock of her blue hair.

"Only _three _sentences? Even _Wolfie _managed to do more than that!" Mrs Heady cried. Mantha looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, both vampires were doubled over, laughing silently. Mantha quickly glanced back at the sharp History teacher. She was shaking her head.

"Detention for another day, Mantha. I cannot accept this lousy excuse for an essay,"

"More detention?"

"I guess you could finish your essay now, if you want..." Mrs Heady mumbled. Mantha nodded and went back to her seat to finish her essay. Mrs Heady was frowning, regretting letting Mantha get out of detention. She watched Mantha finish her work. Mantha could think properly now, for some reason. At the end of detention, Mantha finished her work. She handed it to Mrs Heady, who was still frowning slightly. She hated leaving students unpunished. Especially students who didn't do their work properly. In fact, the only reason why she wanted to be a teacher is to punish students. Even if Esta or Thatch didn't do anything wrong, she would still give them detention. She sighed, plotting to seek revenge on Mantha the next day.

0

"Hey! The light's off!" Thatch announced the next day in History.

"And Thatch makes yet _another _amazing discovery," Esta muttered sarcastically. Thatch scowled at her.

"It's not usually turned off," he mumbled.

"Well, today it is,"

Mrs Heady observed all this from the front of the classroom.

"Esta, Thatch, detention for talking when you weren't supposed to. Wolfie, detention for vandalising school property," she said. Wolfie stared at the broken pencil in his paws. He hadn't meant to break it. "Oh, and Slither, detention for helping Dummy Girl. And detention for Dummy Girl too, for letting Slither help you," she added. She always gave out detentions at the start of the class. She paused, thinking about Mantha. What could she say to get Mantha into trouble?  
>"Mrs Heady, are we starting our projects today?" Mosshead asked timidly. Mrs Heady thought about this. <em>Maybe I could make them do another essay... <em>she thought.

"No. We have to do another essay on The Balance, thanks to Mantha. She didn't do her essay properly yesterday, so you have to do another one," she said. Everyone grumbled and groaned and you could hear a chorus of_ "Thanks a lot, Mantha" _and _"Trust that zombie to ruin it all," _Mantha was unhappy too. Not only was she blamed for making them rewrite the test, but she couldn't think of what to write. Mantha frowned, and took out a sheet of paper. She wrote her name on the top-right corner and the date next to it. She wrote _'The Balance' _as the title and was now thinking of what else to write. She looked around. Everyone was writing away. She could only hear the scratching of pencils. During tests, everyone was silent. Mantha sighed, breaking the spell. For some reason, everyone burst out laughing. Mrs Heady, who was marking worksheets, looked up.

You know what happens next.


End file.
